Let Your Skeletons See The Light Of Day

My Pappy knew Al Capone. I didn't know this fact while he was alive. In fact it took almost 20 years after his death for this story to come out. And only because it suddenly became popular in his old home town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to say you had a family member who knew the notorious gangster.

My grandfather was just a lad in the late 1920's when he lived in Moose Jaw. It was during a time when prohibition still existed in the US but not in Canada. Illicit transportation of alcohol, rumrunning, to the US became big business. With a direct rail connection to Chicago, Moose Jaw became the hub for bootleggers. Moose Jaw became known as "Little Chicago" with  its speakeasies, prostitution and gambling houses.

Since he was only a lad, he wasn't involved in the big business aspect of organized crime that had invaded this small rural town in western Canada. Being small in stature got him the job of a message runner through the tunnels of the underground city that lay beneath Moose Jaw. As a tunnel runner he would relay message from the various mob controlled establishments that allowed them to always stay one step ahead of the local law enforcement.

My Pappy was not proud of his youthful ways and when questioned about his activities would only say, "I've seen and done things in my past that I'm not proud of." Then with a twinkle in his eyes, he'd give us a wink, but would never elaborate. We, as a family, found out more from my grandmother just before she passed away. It was when Moose Jaw rediscovered its colourful past and began offering tours of the tunnels that she realized it was now okay to let the skeleton out of the closet about her husbands checkered past. 

Now, once again, Moose Jaw is booming with gambling houses, only now they're called casinos and they're not run by the mob. I wonder what my Pappy would say now about all of this? He'd probably only smile and give us a wink.